Professor Reber received his undergraduate degree in Music Theory and his Master of Music degree in Piano Literature and Performance at the Eastman School of Music where he studied piano with the distinguished professor Cecile Staub Genhart. While at Eastman, he was awarded a piano teaching fellowship and was one of a select group to present a performance of contemporary American music at Carnegie Recital Hall. In 1962 Reber received a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the Academy of Music in Vienna, Austria where he studied piano with Greta Hinterhofer, a protégé of Emil von Sauer. Upon returning to the United States, he furthered his piano studies with Frank Mannheimer (a student of Tobias Matthay), and David Burge, a recognized authority in 20th century piano music.

Since accepting a teaching position at the University of Kansas in 1964, Reber has continued to be active as a recitalist, lecturer, and adjudicator throughout the United States and abroad, most recently in Japan and Costa Rica. In addition to his solo recitals, he has collaborated in the chamber music repertoire with singers and instrumentalists, including the Dorian Wind Quintet. His orchestral appearances include the premiers of two concertos. His students have won competitive awards and hold faculty positions at universities in the United States, Asia, and Central America.

Reber is recognized as an outstanding lecture-recitalist in the field of 20th century piano music as well as the traditional repertoire. He has participated with contemporary composers in artist-in-resident programs, winning the commendations of the featured composers, including Aaron Copland, Elliot Schwartz, and George Crumb, for performances of their works. He has received research grants to study and perform the piano music of Bela Bartok, Olivier Messiaen, Karlheinz Stockhausen, C. Curtis-Smith, Maurice Ohana, George Crumb, and John Corigliano. In addition to his public performances, he serves as a featured presenter and guest artist for the College Music Society, The American Matthay Association, The Mannheimer Piano Festival Association, and the Music Teachers’ National Association. In the spring of 2007, he collaborated for a second time with George Crumb in an artist–in–residence program, serving as a panelist and guest artist, performing Crumb’s Makrokosmos I and II.